About 300 years ago the philosopher Immanuel Kant stated that lies are wrong because they arise when someone creates for himself an exception to the rule "The deception is wrong' – a rule that the deceiver himself would expect everyone else around him to follow in every other situation [assumes] a position of superiority by breaking a rule that others obey” is what makes cheating so scandalous (Halmburger, Rothmund, Schulte & Baumert 2012 8 ).Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why shouldn't violent video games be banned"? Get an original essay We live in a world where we expect others to be truthful, basing our "actions [and] judgments" on this expectation (Schultz). Yet, in our societies that depend so much on honesty, the fine line between truth and lies is manipulated daily, the truth is bent to serve one's selfish needs, transgression and misconduct are hidden in the deliberate deception of others, and when all else has failed, the corruption discovered is still denied in a desperate attempt to maintain its pristine image. Schultz rightly states that “liars profit by taking advantage of…trust.” It therefore stands to reason that people are naturally attracted to integrity as much as they are repelled by its opposite. This is especially true of politics, an area where deception and falsehood arise from an abuse of power that makes politicians' deception so much more tangible and shocking. But is there more to deception in politics than just the widespread shock that follows its discovery and unveiling? In this article, I would like to examine the impact of political scandal on American culture, using supposedly the most important political scandal in the United States: “Watergate” as a scandal model. I will begin by giving a brief definition of what is meant by a political scandal, and then move on to a more in-depth examination of "Watergate" and its consequences for American culture. My aim will be to show that the consequences of a political scandal, as seen through Watergate, can have serious, long-term effects on a culture. Why study scandals? “Scandals are as old as the republic itself” (Williams 1 ). They surround our lives, our relationships with others, how we see others, and above all our relationship with government and politics. As Thompson says, “the scandal matters because, in our modern mediated world, it touches real sources of power… [and has] become intertwined with the transformation that has shaped the modern world” (Thompson's Foreword). But isn't the study of scandal – even if political – too trivial a topic to study? , some might ask. Should the study of scandals be left to the tabloids? Thompson disagrees, pointing out that “scandals… are not simply to be understood as evidence of moral decline (Ibid?) or a product of for-profit journalism, [but are] an important social phenomenon that can have serious consequences on the culture in which they happen” (Foreword by Williams? ). These consequences are due, in part, to the fact that “individuals acting in the political field depend crucially on the use of symbolic power to persuade and influence others and to shape the course of events” (Williams?). According to Thompson, scandal, and political scandal in particular, is an important issue that deserves more attention and study than first thought, as it is a “revelatory issue in terms of what it tells us about the kind of world in which).